a. A man took his daughter to the carnival, and she immediately ran over to a booth and asked for cotton candy. As the attendant handed her a huge ball of it, the father asked, “Sweetheart, are you sure you can eat all of that?” “Don’t worry, Dad,” she answered, “I’m a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside.” That’s what real character is – being bigger on the inside.

b. We ought to walk in the company of those who have good character

c. You are know by the company you keep

d. You will be influenced by the company you keep

ii. Faithfulness to the truth (3-4 ; 8 – fellow helpers to the truth.; 12a - Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself)

a. The world crowns success but God crowns faithfulness

b. We ought to keep to the task

c. The truth of God’s Word is the greatest reality in our lives

B. Diotrephes

i. Self-centered (9b - who loveth to have the preeminence among them)

a. Aesop tells a story of an aging king bird who made a proclamation that on a certain day they should all present themselves before him, when he would himself choose the most beautiful among them to be their next king. The Crow, knowing his own ugliness, searched through the woods and fields, and collected the feathers which had fallen from the wings of his companions, and stuck them in all parts of his body, hoping thereby to make himself the most beautiful of all. When the appointed day arrived, and the birds had assembled before the aging king, the Crow also made his appearance in his many feathered finery. But when the aging king proposed to make him king because of the beauty of his plumage, the birds indignantly protested, and each plucked from him his own feathers, leaving the Crow nothing but a Crow.

b. He had a big ego

c. He had to be number one and no one else was to share the spotlight

d. This is not how Scripture tells us to act - Philippians 2:4 - Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

ii. Stained by political ambition (10b-c - prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.)